Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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50. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her priorities for 2017 in respect of persons with disabilities; the funding being provided for all disability programmes in 2017 and specifically the funding to be provided for the National Disability Authority; and if none of this proposed funding will be reduced to accommodate pressures elsewhere in her Department's Voted Estimates. [34833/16]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Department of Justice and Equality has a policy coordination role in relation to disability, but does not have responsibility in relation to funding of disability services. Within that policy coordination role, my priorities for 2017 are as follows:

1. Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Work is underway on drawing up an Equality/Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill to progress miscellaneous legislative amendments necessary to proceed to ratification. It is intended that the Bill will address issues such as the Convention's requirements in relation to reasonable accommodation and deprivation of liberty, as well as removing archaic references in existing legislation relating to mental health. The General Scheme of the Equality/Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is available on the Department's website. It is expected that the Bill will be published shortly so as to facilitate ratification of the Convention by end-2016.

2. Implementation of the Comprehensive Employment Strategy (CES) for People with Disabilities: The role of the Department of Justice and Equality in relation to the CES is to monitor progress and ensure that the Strategy is implemented. A key priority for 2017 is to progress the increase in the statutory public service employment target of people with disabilities on a phased basis as set out in the Strategy from 3% to 6% over the life time of the Strategy. Work will begin on this in early 2017.

3. The commencement and implementation of the new National Disability Inclusion Strategy: I expect to be in a position shortly to finalise the new National Disability Inclusion Strategy, and present it at Cabinet for sign-off, so as to facilitate the publication of the Strategy by end-2016.

4. Funding: In so far as the Department of Justice and Equality is concerned, there is an annual budget allocation of €250,000 for the provision of disability awareness grants. The 2017 allocation for the National Disability Authority is €3.804m. There are no proposals to reduce this funding to meet commitments elsewhere.